Editorial: That ‘moviment’ of right-wing socialists

Many were rightly shocked by Robert Abela’s declaration that he intends to push for reforms to the European Convention on Human Rights when Malta takes over the presidency of the Council of Europe this year.

His statement that “human rights should be merited” sparked immediate concern, raising fundamental questions about his understanding of the convention’s principles.

Although he later clarified that he was referring to conventions on migrant returns, such remarks from a prime minister betray a troubling disregard for the fact the Human Rights Convention is not a negotiable document. It is the foundation of fundamental rights for all.

Human rights and solidarity are among the EU’s founding principles. It predates Abela’s birth and the very modern trend where statesmen believe they are above laws, and most notably, common decency. The fact an asylum seeker may not qualify for protection does not strip them of fundamental human rights. Forcing them back to a country where they face harm would also be a blatant violation of these rights.

A prime minister of a small member state thinking of bulldozing a Human Rights Convention must be taking his lessons from the worst despots of the present, with little regard for history.

Of course, talk of an intangible such as “meriting human rights” is a coded sop to Europe’s far-right.

Abela’s statement comes in the wake of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ham-fisted attack on the Ventotene Manifesto, written by two imprisoned Italian anti-fascists in 1941, and which is considered as one of the founding texts of the EU.

It also comes in the background of an EU which gives clear signs of disharmony on defence and Ukraine, with right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban standing out for his refusal to participate in common rearmament.

Human rights and solidarity are among the EU’s founding principles. It predates Abela’s birth

The prime minister’s declaration on the Human Rights Convention came as a surprise to many insiders, as if it were a last-minute suggestion from new allies seeking to overrule laws and protections to citizens across Europe.

In this regard, it is worrying to see tiny Malta act as a torchbearer for what is essentially a regressive decision that seeks to cancel out the lessons of World War II – born out of fascist aggression.

With the right-wing establishment gaining ground in elections abroad, Abela knows his proposal will find widespread political support in Europe. That Malta, a constitutionally neutral state, should pander so blatantly to the right wing in the present international situation is nothing short of scurrilous.

There’s a second, more localised hypocrisy to Abela’s playing the world’s smallest violin for right-wing populists like Orban and Donald Trump. It revolves around the question of “what would Mintoff have done?”

The famous adage of ‘Malta l-Ewwel u Qabel Kollox’ (Malta, first and foremost) has been misconstrued to the point where Labour’s administration across the board is a toxic mix of favouring the powerful and bullying the weak, both locally and internationally. 

It is a government which has increasingly strayed from the core socialist values the Labour Party was founded upon, prioritising corporate interests, unchecked development, and cronyism over the well-being of the working class.

Abela should be resurrecting the importance of burden-sharing rather than attempting to weaken human rights. It is enough to listen to his government’s chest-thumping rhetoric when it justifies the disgraceful strategy of pushing migrants back to Libya.

While such tactics will score some domestic points (sadly, strongman-posturing and rhetoric are common in today’s tragic political world), history will not be kind to a leader who abandons his socialist principles for the sake of short-term gains.